Resurrection (a WIB and 00-Agent Story)
by AgentK27
Summary: When James Bond goes missing after retirement, it is up to retired agents K (Kimberley Devolin) and Alec Trevelyan to locate their partner and comrade.
1. Chapter 1

Alec double checked the address saved on his phone, positive that he had the wrong place. A quaint, New England style house sat on the lot marked number Twelve with a two car garage and more flower beds than he had ever seen in one place. Parking at the curb, he took in the charming two story home with blue siding and picture windows. It had taken him so long to track her down that he didn't want to blow his chance by believing that he knew her well enough to be sure that she would live somewhere a little more extravagant. He cut the engine and emerged from the air conditioned bliss of the Dodge Charger into the sweltering midday heat. Removing his sun glasses and hooking them to the front of his t-shirt, he made his way across the well-manicured lawn to the steps leading up to the porch.

As he reached the door a dog began barking somewhere inside. A big dog by the sound of it. Alec shook his head. He was about to make a fool of himself when the wrong person opened the door but he had to take the chance, there was much more at stake than his pride. He couldn't help straightening up and glancing back at the car, he could still make his escape and continue his search elsewhere. He had just lifted his hand to press the doorbell when he heard a metallic sound on the other side of the door and it opened a crack.

"If you press that button I will let the dog out after you." Promised the faceless voice. "What do you want?" Alec shoved his hands in his pockets and took a step back, not the least bit interested in becoming dog chow for whatever monster was kept inside the house.

"I'm looking for Kimberly Devolin. Does she live here?" He mused, trying to see through the crack in the door. His attempts were for naught when the heavy door opened further.

"What business do you have with Kimberly Devolin?" asked the tall, lean, woman that stood in the door way. Her hair was no longer her usual platinum, having been died a deep red and her bright green eyes bore into him, seemingly trying to place him. She could change her appearance, as he had changed his, but time had done little to change the way that she carried herself, with a confidence and air of superiority that he had never seen matched.

"I'm an old friend looking to share some rather colorful memories." He began, a smile of relief creeping onto his face. "It's good to see you K." The woman in front of him wasn't smiling. She still scanned him curiously but he was sure that she knew more than she was letting on. She had every right to be cautious.

"I don't go by my initial anymore Alec Trevelyan. It's Kim and you don't have to share your memories with me, I remember full well the chaos that we took part in." she leaned heavily against the door frame, crossing her arms over her chest. Alec could see both of her hands but he had absolutely no doubt that the woman was still armed if by nothing else than force of habit.

"I need your help." He stated simply. K stood up and peered up and down the street before stepping aside and allowing him to enter the house. He was hesitant to step through the door. "The dog?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"There is no dog." She sighed and ushered him in. The moment that he stepped off of the porch the barking ceased. He had to keep himself from laughing as K shut the door behind him and punched a code into a panel on the wall and placed her hand on a sensor. Something heavy and metal shifted in the door and she motioned him into the kitchen.

A few minutes later they were seated at the kitchen table with two steaming cups of coffee. It was such a normal scene, anyone looking in an open window would have guessed the past of the two highly trained people sharing a conversation. Alec took a drink from the steaming mug and immediately started to cough and sputter.

"Good to know that some things never change. Did the spoon melt when you put sugar in this? It's tar." He laughed, setting the mug back down and trying to regain his composure. K sat across from him, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms again. Her whole person emanated discomfort. She wasn't happy that he had shown up on her door step.

"I can't help you Alec. Two years ago I said that I was done and I meant it. I've established a normal life that I was denied at the hands of you and James. I won't go back." She stated simply. Alec took a look around the kitchen.

"A normal life that includes hidden weapons and top of the line security? We can never be normal K, we gave up normal when we made our decision to join however many years ago." He assured her casually. She flinched at her title but recovered quickly, sitting up straight and holding her coffee mug in both hands.

"Yes, my past makes me careful, a lot of bad things happened to good people and we pissed off a lot of bad people but that doesn't mean that I miss it. I like being able to get a full night of sleep without worrying that my phone will ring and I will ship out. I enjoy sleeping in my own bed every night and not having to worry about what I say on the off chance that someone is wearing a wire." She was still watching him like a hawk, judging his gestures, watching his hands for any flinch toward his waist band or pockets.

"Right now you are thinking that I was sent by the service. That you know too much and they have ordered your termination. I can't say that I blame you, it's not unheard of, but I assure you that I am here on personal business." He met her glare and reached out to touch her arm reassuringly but in one quick movement she reached under the table and pointed the business end of a Taurus Raging Bull at him. To anyone else, this would be terrifying, and he did jump slightly, but he had been in the situation with this particular woman on more than one occasion. He sat back in his chair with a sign and put his hands up in surrender.

"Tell me what you want Alec so I can respectfully decline and you can go back to where ever you are calling home these days." Her eyes shot sparks at him and from experience he knew that she would have no problem putting a bullet in him. She had never tried to kill him, but he had a few scars and one rebuilt knee to remind him that she was to be taken seriously.

"Do you always surprise your coffee companions with the threat of a lead lobotomy?" he asked, his voice not giving away the slight edge of adrenaline that had begun to course through his veins at the familiar sight of a gun barrel. Just like old times.

"What do you want Alec?" She asked, removing the safety with a threatening click.

"James is missing." He stated simply, putting his hands on the table in front of him slowly. K reengaged the safety and set the gun on the table next to her, just out of his reach. She started to laugh and shook her head.

"James Bond is missing? What a shock. Why does that even concern you? The man is invisible." The complete hilarity of the idea had her chuckling into her coffee mug as she took a long sip before continuing to shake her head. Alec knew that it sounded crazy, but if anyone had cared about the welfare of James it had been K. The two people were their commanders, they lead their team into every battle without so much as a flinch and he knew that despite her outward carelessness, what he had said was eating at K.

"He's not invisible any more. He was doing the same thing that you're doing now. Drinking coffee and living as normal of a life as was possible given our history. He rented a flat in London, went by the name of Travis LeBeau and even got a normal every day job." Alec explained to her calmly, watching for some kind of hint that she cared about what he was saying. "The paper printed the other day that his apartment was ransacked and Mr. LeBeau was reported missing. I took it upon myself to see the aftermath and DNA testing confirmed that blood found smeared in the apartment was in fact the blood of our leader." Her head spun to meet his gaze so quickly that he feared she would have whiplash.

"Your leader. James Bond had absolutely no control over me and my team. Remember that." She spat at him before returning her gaze to the kitchen window, seemingly searching for answers outside. After a few moments of silence she snapped out of her reverie and continued. "I will agree with you that it seems odd but this is James we're talking about. Who's to say that it wasn't just some stage set for him to disappear, once again, into the depths of society?" She stood and made her way over to the sink, leaning against the counter while Alec watched all of the gears in her mind spin out of control. She was on edge and concern finally altered her visage as she chewed on her lower lip.

"Regardless of whether or not he was abducted or simply needed to disappear, I feel that he could use our help. He had to disappear for a reason, he was quite comfortable as Travis LeBeau and something must have spooked him enough for him to stage something so elaborate." Alec reasoned, eyeing the firearm that K had left on the table across from him. His attention returned to the woman when she let out a deep sigh and returned to the table with a look of pure defeat.

"Leave it to James to ruin my retirement." She huffed, replacing the gun to its hidden holster under the table and meeting his gaze. "I will need a few days to get my affairs in order."


	2. Chapter 2

The Charger roared down the secluded two-lane dirt road, sending fallen leaves swirling through the air and kicking up clods of mud as it sped past. At the hands of a less experienced individual, the rear-wheel drive behemoth might have been difficult to control on such an unforgiving road, but for Alec, who had in past adventures 'commandeered' everything from tanks to helicopters, it was just another Sunday drive. Still though, he preferred the finesse of good old English roadsters; the Aston Martins he and James used to barrel around in during the glory days had never let him down.

Being alone with his thoughts again and thinking of James caused Alec's overbearing sense of urgency that he had been feeling since finding out James had disappeared to resurface. It had now been three days since he had received the news from headquarters that James had disappeared. Although 'Travis LeBeau' had no remaining ties to Her Majesty's Secret Service, MI6, they made it their business to keep tabs on what their ex-agents were up to. A disappearing act like the one James had performed could signal a threat to the national security if something unthinkable had happened. Perhaps James had been captured and MI6 information was being tortured out of him, or perhaps an individual or group with a vendetta against MI6 was targeting known operatives and past affiliates of MI6 to terminate them for some reason. Whatever the case, if the disappearance of their former top agent had not been orchestrated by 007 himself, then it was not likely that the situation was a good one. Alec took a moment to think about the irony of this turn of events: James probably would have been safer if he were still 007, protected by his anonymity as an MI6 agent. Instead – if he had been captured or killed anyhow – his position as a civilian had left him exposed and vulnerable.

Alec continued to dwell on this as he steered the car gracefully around a hairpin curve in the road. Maybe if he had done more to keep James around Alec could have saved him. He had not taken it well when James had decided he wanted to leave the service. To Alec he had not only been a stalwart commander and partner since their pre-MI6 days in the Special Forces, but a good friend. The years of responsibility and stress must have worn his friend down though, because he had been getting sloppy and less professional on their last missions together, not to mention more quiet and guarded around everyone else including Alec, until finally James had told Alec that he was tired of it all and was finally retiring. MI6 had set him up with a new identity and life where he could live as a civilian in peace, meanwhile instead of doing what he felt would have been disrespectful to 007's memory by accepting a new partner, Alec had chosen to remove himself from work in the field to behind a desk at headquarters. A part of him had known that the integrity he had in his work had been inspired by 007 and that with him gone, 006 was as good as checked out as well and that he would have been just as well to follow suit, but Her Majesty's Secret Service was the only thing that had ever given Alec's life meaning and could not stand to let it go.

And now the turn of events that brought Alec to Agent K's (it was still far too strange for Alec to refer to her, even to himself, as "Kimberly") house had changed the situation completely. When MI6 had become aware of Travis LeBeau's disappearance, they had sent 008, Max Sanders, to investigate, aware that 006 no longer desired field work. 008 had, of course, been the next closest agent to 007 as the three of them had worked together on many of their early missions. In fact it was the three of them that had first become acquainted with, and subsequently had to ally with, the WIB on that fateful mission that began a love-hate relationship between the two secret service branches. On a later mission, however, a climactic standoff between the combined forces of the WIB and 00-agents and the mercenaries of a powerful terrorist cell had resulted in 008 being critically wounded and almost losing his life when the rendezvous plan had gone wrong. Attributing the error to the disadvantages of operating in a squad format, 008 requested to work alone from that day forward and 007 and 006 rarely saw him.  
Alec had kept this information from K. That mission was the last one that the WIB and 00-agents had worked together on, so she was likely unaware that a falling out had, in essence, taken place between the agents. He had also kept from her the fact that 008 had not returned from his reconnaissance mission, for he feared that the more dangerous she thought this mission might be, the less likely she would be to join forces with him. He needed Agent K for this. With the only two other 00-agents he would trust working with on a mission like this gone, the WIB were the next best thing. It was not as though they were any less proficient or well-trained than the 00-agents, conversely, Alec thought, he and James' lives had been saved by Agent K on more occasions than he cared to think about. It was simply that from Alec and James' points of view, they had never been the easiest to work with. Their alliances on missions more closely resembled a symbiosis than camaraderie.

Alec was glad that he had been able to talk K into searching for James with him. Not only had he been thoroughly convinced at K's house that she was still as capable as ever, it felt reassuring to have a familiar face around. Alec was feeling the closest thing to the drive he used to have on MI6 field missions than anything since James had left. He felt a slight sense of guilt, however. He suddenly realised how irresponsible and selfish it had been of him to be wallowing in self-pity all of the time that James had been gone from MI6. Although as a 00-agent he was still required to pass intermittent fitness tests, as a pen -pusher he was not required to maintain his hand-to-hand combat or firearms training, so he did this rather infrequently and now could probably not even hold his own against K, who while managing to best Alec often even in the old days, would now have a distinct advantage. On the other hand, Agent K had, like James, chosen to give up the secret service life in place of a normal, stress-free life. Yet she had still managed to remain in peak physical condition and in a state of preparedness. And managed to continue looking fantastic while doing it, too, Alec added to himself as an afterthought.

Finally Alec began to slow the car as he approached his destination. It had been a while since he had spent any significant amount of time at his actual residence. He had located himself in such a rural area because he did not wish to be disturbed by anyone, and for people who might know his identity as an MI6 agent he did not want to make it any easier for them to find him during the tiny amounts of time he vacated MI6 headquarters on his required leaves of absence.

The powerful V8 engine protested loudly as Alec urged the car up the winding driveway to the house. Pulling up next to it, he set the parking brake and cut the engine. He had not spent more than a couple of days at this residence for a long time, and did not intend to do so on this occasion, either. He was simply collecting some belongings he thought he might need for the search for James and waiting for Agent K to get her affairs in order before meeting her at the airport to fly out to James' last known location. And 008's for that matter.

The thumps of Alec's boots on the walkway up to the front door were the only audible sounds aside from the slight breeze whistling through the trees. There was not another house for several kilometres and that was how he liked it. He reached the front door and fumbled in his pocket for his key. It took some persuasion due to the mechanism's lack of use but the key finally turned, sliding the bolt open and allowing him access to the house. Alec closed the door behind him and took off his boots at the door. As he was doing so he got a glance of himself in the full-length hall mirror. Almost in response to what he had been thinking about in the car, the numerous years that had passed had not been as favourable to Alec as they had been to Agent K. He approached the mirror, stopping directly in front of it to get a proper look at himself, and it was as though he was truly seeing himself for the first time since the old days. Though roughly the same age as K, Alec looked and felt several years older due to his far less rigorous physical upkeep. The mirror still depicted the same wiry, athletic form that resulted from MI6's fitness standards, but the age was all in his face. He neglected shaving far more than he had used to, making his face appear coarse and weathered. His medium brown hair which he had used to keep short and parted neatly to the side during his days as a field agent was now rather lengthy and unkempt. He combed it when reporting to work at headquarters but not much more.

Alec snapped out of his reverie in front of the mirror and was just about to turn away to prepare his belongings when he noticed something in the mirror out of his peripheral vision and froze. It was a figure, crouched silently behind the railing on the upper level hallway just at the top of the stairs. The figure was holding a magnum revolver, and it was pointed directly at him.

Alec's instinct took over and he dropped to the floor, just as there was a deafening bang and the mirror glass in front of him shattered. Instantly he rolled to the side, out of the line of fire of his attacker. He hit the wall, clambered up and scrambled through the doorway into the den, two more rounds puncturing the floor and then the wall where he had been only a fraction of a second before. In the temporary safety of the den, Alec quickly removed his Walther PPK from its shoulder holster and took cover along the wall on the opposite side of the doorway he had run in from.

Hearing nothing, he leaned out cautiously to inspect. The figure was moving down the stairs. He took another shot at Alec as he saw him peek out, and Alec retreated back into cover, now aware that the attacker was coming straight for him. He waited until he suspected the man had reached the bottom of the stairs and extended only his arm into the doorway, intending to blind-fire into the front hall, but his attacker was closer than he anticipated and simply grabbed Alec's outstretched arm, pulling him into the open and exposing him and causing Alec to drop his gun – a potentially fatal mistake that he would not have made if his hand-to-hand combat skills had been up to snuff. Alec used this momentum to pivot to the side of his attacker, using his free hand to grab the attacker's gun hand. The two struggled to overpower each other, both hands of both individuals being tied up by the other. The struggle caused the attacker to accidentally fire off another shot, which ended up lodged in the ceiling.

Finally the attacker jerked his hand and freed it from Alec's grasp, and proceeded to deliver a swift jab to Alec's jaw. Reeling back, the attacker delivered another and another until Alec's back hit the opposite wall. His attacker then reached in with both hands, which he used to grasp tightly around Alec's neck, strangling him. Instinctively he reached his hands up and gripped his attacker's wrists, attempting to pry them away. Beginning to black out from lack of oxygen, with the last of his energy he raised his knee up into the abdomen of his attacker, which was enough to cause him to drop his hands from Alec's neck.

Alec knew it was now or never. With all of the remaining energy he could muster he threw a haymaker at his attacker's face. The man's head snapped back from the force and Alec leapt forward, using his weight to send the two of them crashing to the floor. Alec scrambled to pin him down. Grabbing the front of the man's jacket with both hands Alec shook his torso violently.

"What are you doing here!?" Alec demanded.

The man said nothing but grunted incoherently and placed his hands over his mouth.

"What did you say? I'm talking to you!" he shouted, using one hand to strike the man in the face.  
The man fell backwards onto the floor, and his hands dropped to his sides, spreadeagled.  
It was then that Alec noticed the foam issuing from the now-dead man's mouth. He had ingested a suicide pill of some sort.

"Damnit!" Exhausted, he sat back against the wall and began to process what had just happened. There had been an attempt on his life and he had no idea why, though he suspected it might have something to do with James' disappearance. If it did, it might mean that Agent K was in danger as well, since Alec had just spoken with her an hour before. Either way, he knew he had to contact her right away.


	3. Chapter 3

Agent K threw another frustrated kick at the foot of the dead man laying on her kitchen floor and holstered the Beretta M9 at her waist, pulling her flannel shirt carefully over the weapon. The man had apparently climbed in through one of the bedroom windows upstairs and intended to surprise her in the foyer after Alec left but he was clumsy and loud enough for her to discover him at the top of the stairs. She made her way into the study and rifled through her desk drawers for the cell phone that the service had issued her upon her resignation. Apparently they were worried about the welfare of the former agents enough to assign them to secure line phones for emergencies and intell. One never really got to leave the service after all, they simply declined active duty and their files remained the way that they left them. At this point she was thankful that the damn thing was charged, she had never had to use it, in normal life conversations were quite as sensitive as they were in the field, and she punched in the number that Alec left her a little harder than was required.

"I thought that it took women a long time to pack. You must be an exception." Alec said, picking up on the first ring and giving up on greetings all together. K fell into the chair behind the desk with an exasperated sigh, trying desperately to quell her anger. It didn't work.

"Are you a damn rookie?" She bit out. There was silence on the other end for a second.

"Excuse me?"

"I asked you if you were a rookie because the corpse on my kitchen floor says that you had a tail on you the whole time that you were here and you knew nothing about it!" She knew that she was yelling, and she knew that she needed to keep calm, but all of the frustration of the day was catching up with her. The adrenaline in her system kept her on edge, she was listening to Alec but she always had one ear on the creaking of the house, listening for any sign of a second adversary.

"I had one waiting for me too. Are you injured?" Alec asked, she heard the concern in his voice and it did nothing but annoy her.

"I think I broke my hand on his cheek bone. Bond owes me for this one." She spat out, trying to take the edge off of the conversation. Her right hand throbbed on the phone but the rush of combat was still keeping the pain at bay so far. After having hit nothing but heavy bags for the duration of her leave, she had forgotten how hard a human skull could be. She sat up straight, sure that she heard movement outside of her window. "Alec, I think I'm going to have to call you back."

"K wait! Did he say- " K cut the connection before Alec could finish his sentence and placed the phone back in the drawer slowly. Her hand went to the gun at her hip and she lifted herself out of the chair. Pinning her back against the wall next to the window she was braced when the figure came crashing through the panes and rolled onto the carpet in the middle of the room. She fired two shots at him but both missed him by inches, apparently her aim was a little off from years of no practice. The attacker shot at her but she rolled behind the desk milliseconds before the bullets buried themselves into the wall. Breathing deeply, she tapped into the combat skills that had been instilled into all agents at MI6 and lounged at him over the desk. K threw a right hook at the man beneath her and quickly reached for his gun hand, slamming it against the floor until he relinquished possession of the weapon.

"Who sent you?" She shrieked, grabbing the burly man by the front of his jacket, lifting him off of the ground and slamming him back down. His breath left him in a rush and she repeated the action. "Tell me who sent you!" She yelled, her anger all boiling up into the very moment. She threw an elbow, successfully tearing the skin on his cheek bone. Her attacker threw a punch that connected cleanly at her jaw, sending her backwards and allowing him to get to his knees but K was faster. She got to her feet and threw a kick to the groin leaving the man reeling and falling to his side in the fetal position. She recovered his firearm and pointed it at him.

"I will give you one more chance." She threatened, taking the safety off and standing over him. "Who sent you here?" The man caught her off guard by starting to laugh, it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, it was almost twisted.

"Ah but we've met before." Was all he said, his accent thick but unable to distinguish. K kicked him in the chest, hearing the air leave his lungs. Still he laughed, looking up at her with brown eyes. She knelt and searched for the suicide pill that, if his comrade was any example, he was hiding somewhere close to his hands. If she gave him that option she would get from him exactly what she got from his friend: nothing. She fired a shot inches from his head.

"Where's the pill?" She bellowed, another warning shot ringing out in the otherwise silent house. He looked up at her continuing to laugh. She heard a faint click and swore. She turned the man over and wrenched his mouth open, hoping that the pill would fall out of his mouth. She slammed his head against the hard wood and looked, but all that was there was his blood. His mouth began to foam and she knew that she had failed. "FUCK!" she yelled, hammering her fists in the dead man's back. How did everyone get their hands on cyanide pills anyway? Since when was that a big thing?

K walked back to the desk, feeling for the empty space in her own mouth where her kill pill had been implanted for years. Thankfully it was far enough back that she had never had to have a fake tooth put it. She hit redial and waited for Alec to answer the phone.

"Trevelyan."

"I got two! Why did they send two after me and one after you? Hardly seems fair." She muttered like a cross child. As much as he had fought the urge, Alec laughed into the receiver.

"Did either one of them say anything?" He inquired. She shook her head.

"The second one said that we had met before but he pilled out before I could get anything else out of him. The first one took the pill from his hand but this one had it implanted in his mouth. They're using MI6 tactics." She holstered the Beretta and made her way into the foyer, grabbing weapons from their hiding places as she went.

"I can only assume that they used to be MI6 tactics that have now gone mainstream but I'll look into it. I should check for rogue agents and those that were never recovered anyway, just to be on the safe side." Alec thought out loud as he was known to do. K didn't want to make this a lengthy conversation.

"Fine. I'm packing. We leave at 0200." She bit out, grabbing a suitcase out of her bedroom closet and opening it on the comfortable bed that she would miss more than anything. Her house had once been a peaceful haven but all of that had been ruined by James Bond and his mysterious actions.

"I'll send a clean up crew in the morning."

"Alec, if James Bond isn't dead, I'll fucking kill him." She cut the connection and threw the phone into the suitcase with her clothes.


	4. Chapter 4

The engine was silenced as Alec turned the keys and removed them from the ignition. Leaving them lying on the driver's seat he stepped out of the car and shut the door, then proceeded to the back seat to retrieve his minimal travelling belongings, which were neatly packed into a standard, plain-looking Samsonite briefcase. Though he was aware that leaving the keys so exposed presented the possibility of the car being stolen from the airport parking garage before the MI6's American outpost had a chance to retrieve it, he did not feel the desire to spend the extra time checking them in with airport personnel. It was not as though he would miss that beastly thing anyhow. Though he was able to see how some crazy street person behind the wheel of a car with stinger missiles behind the headlights could be problematic.  
Part of the perk of the level of security clearance Alec and K possessed was that they were not required to pass through airport security – and thus why Alec was not enthused about the idea of making the trip just for the Charger's keys. He exited the parking garage to the outside of the building and circled the structure to get to the air field. He was required to pass only through one gate, and while it was guarded by security armed with submachine guns, Alec scanned his MI6 identity and was permitted access.  
As he strode briskly across the open air field he experienced a gust of cool wind. Of course it was only two o'clock in the morning, but after K had been attacked in her home she had wanted to leave as soon as possible. Still, thought Alec, would it have killed her to wait until there was some semblance of daylight? He looked up at the still-dark sky. No stars were visible because the numerous flood lights illuminating the runways.

Finally approaching the private hangars, he saw Agent K already waiting there.

"Good evening, K." Alec greeted her.

"Don't you mean 'good morning'?" she retorted. Alec could see that she was still visibly uncomfortable with returning to her former WIB title. "Is that all you have?" she continued, looking down at Alec's possessions. "That one puny briefcase? There isn't even enough space in there for a week's worth of underwear."

"Yes, that's true. Not the way you pack it, in any case." Alec replied with a smirk. He was not going to let K's sarcasm make the mission completely unbearable.

"Honestly, I can't see how you would have fit anything you need in that. I really didn't think that I had to specify what 'coming prepared' entailed." K said skeptically.

"Well regardless, everything I need is in fact in here. You need only worry about your own possessions, my dear." Alec said. "Are you ready to get moving?"

"Yes. I've only been waiting for you," she said, though much more business in her tone now. "Which hangar is it?"

"That one," said Alec, pointing towards the middle of the row of hangars sitting along the outside of the air field.

MI6 had arranged for the agents to be flown privately to England as opposed to on the airline that they had flown Alec in on, after both of them had been attacked in their homes. Clearly whatever had happened to James went deeper than a personal vendetta against 007 himself. Whatever was happening, they had the ability to possess much more pertinent knowledge, such as the fact that Alec had been assigned to the case, and that he was meeting up with K to enlist her to the case as well. Since those actions were among the most classified MI6 mission intelligence, headquarters thought it best to keep the K and Alec as out-of-sight as possible until it was figured out.

Once they arrived, two airport personnel assisted in hauling the hangar doors open, revealing the small, sleek Learjet inside. The side hatch was opened outwards, forming a stairway into the plane. As K and Alec walked towards the jet, a man emerged from inside it and descended the steps toward them, addressing them when he was near.

"Hello, 006. Good to see you again," he said, shaking hands with Alec. "And Agent K, I presume. The living legend herself." He thrust his hand eagerly towards her as well. K ignored it. Alec decided to introduce them.

"K, this is Gordon Johnson, one of the finest pilots in the Secret Service."

"A pleasure," she said, acknowledging him briefly.

"You know," said Gordon, completely oblivious to her very evident lack of enthusiasm in talking to him, "I never really knew if I believed that a branch of MI6 existed that dealt specifically with otherworldly events and security. It's an honour to meet a WIB agent in person."

"As long as you can get us where we're going, then that's just great." K responded, wanting to end the conversation. There was a drawn-out silence as Alec looked back and forth between them, waiting for sparks to shoot out of K's eyes and electrocute the oblivious Gordon. Finally he spoke.

"Anyways, if we're all ready to get going, then let's get this show on the road!" He turned around and climbed the stairs back into the plane, K and Alec following behind. Gordon settled himself into the cockpit as the ramp behind them was shut and sealed. Alec was very aware of the locks being fastened. Despite the training he had received from the Secret Service on a variety of vehicles, planes had made him uncomfortable since before he had ever been recruited by MI6.

Gordon fired up the engines and began taxiing onto the runway, leaving the hangar behind. Between his communications with the control tower, Alec spoke briefly with him.

"How long until we get to England?" he asked.

"It'll be five to six hours," Gordon replied.

"Terrific," muttered Alec despondently as he turned and made his way to the passenger area of the plane. K had already made herself comfortable at one of the tables. Producing a tablet from one of her bags she began rifling through various documents. She looked up as Alec sat down across from her.

"What're you looking at?" he asked.

"I'm going through all of the media databases I can find that contain information about Travis LeBeau's disappearance. Maybe there's some minor detail or something that was overlooked by investigators that has some meaning to us." K replied without looking up.

"Excellent. Well before I left to meet you at the airport I was doing a little research of my own." Alec opened the briefcase and produced a small laptop computer. Though K continued to flip through pages on her tablet, Alec could see that she was attempting to steal a glance at the remaining contents of the briefcase before he shut it, no doubt checking to see if, in fact, more than a week's worth of underwear could be packed inside.

Alec booted up the computer and continued telling K what he had found.  
"As you mentioned over the phone, these mercenaries or whoever has been sent to cover up the disappearance of James are using MI6 protocols, right down to the use of cyanide as an out to protect their identities. MI6 certainly aren't the only organisation doing that anymore, but it did start with us, and must have been leaked by one of our own at some point in time."

"Well, MI6 has existed for a long time, Trevelyan. Countless agents have come and gone in that time. It could have been any one of them selling secrets to terrorist organisations. Cyanide pills have been in use for decades." K said.

"You're correct, yes. However, in more recent years, the R&D scientists at the MI6 labs developed a newer type of pill, which in addition to killing the user quickly and painlessly, releases a chemical into the bloodstream that effectively irradiates organic tissue relying on that blood for oxygen - basically the entire human body." Alec explained.

"So are you saying that I've got two corpses in my house that are emitting deadly radiation?!" K demanded. "Because if after the mission I can't go home for the reason that my house is a pile of green radioactive goo, and it's all James fault..."

"No, no, no, nothing like that," Alec reassured her before she could continue. He could far too easily see her escalating into hysterics and the Learjet's cabin atmosphere rapidly decompressing due to several bullets having punctured it. "I apologise if I've given the impression that I'm an expert on this stuff, I've just been reading the files on it. When they agreed to let me return to the field to take on James' case, they also granted me access to the higher security databases. Anyways, from what I've read, the amount of the reagent used in the pill is not enough to release radiation into the atmosphere, just to damage the organic materials it comes into contact with."

"Right, so while I'm going through police reports, news footage, you know, relevant stuff, you're catching up on your Scientific American issues? Can you please get to the point while I'm still young..." Alec shot her a teasing look of cynicism. "...ish?" K finished.

"Again, I'm no scientist, but the point is that the genetic code for that tissue becomes, in essence, scrambled, preventing forensics from being able to positively test the victims for identity. They're basically wiped clean of everything but sheer physical appearance. So unless you recognise those guys from the supermarket, there's no other way to ever find out who they are," Alec concluded.

"So you're saying our would-be killers used this new pill?" K asked quietly.

"Yes. I had the foam from my guy's mouth tested, and they detected the reagent in it."  
The two of them sat in silence momentarily, considering this. Neither K or Alec were foolish enough to suggest a fingerprint check since the assassins were using MI6 tactics, they would likely have been cauterised off.

"One of the guys who attacked me said that we had met before," K contemplated out loud. "So maybe there's a chance I could identify him from appearance alone. The problem is, his face didn't immediately ring a bell."

"Hmmmm. Interesting. The gentleman at my house didn't utter a word." Alec said.

"How is it that your place is so nearby when you're still with MI6?" asked K. "I settle hidden away in the States when I retire, only to find out that 006 lives only a car ride away?"

"Not exactly. I still live in the house in Muswell Hill I've been in since MI6. The American house was my uncle's. I inherited it after he died. Just pure coincidence that it's so close to yours, I suppose. I don't spend an awful lot of time there in any case, just saw it as convenient to set up there briefly while I came to solicit your help." Alec explained. K just sighed and shook her head with a slight smile.  
"As a side note, I still think it's unfair that you got two."

"No kidding," agreed K. "Figures I'd get twice the work."

"And did they not think that I could handle two as well? I find it rather insulting that they only sent one guy to my place, when I can easily handle whatever situation the great Agent K can." Alec joked.

"Whatever you say. As I understand it, you were just about done in by the first one. Face it, Alec, I could kick your ass now even harder than I could back in the old days." K laughed. It might have been true but Alec wasn't going to admit it.

"Moving right along," he said, changing the subject, "the new suicide pills have only been in use since the 00-Agents and WIB were created, as an extra measure of security. What that means is that whoever sent these guys has to have an in with one of our MI6 divisions somehow."

"But we've only existed for just over a decade. We were basically the first recruits of our kind for them!" K said.

"Exactly. Meaning that whoever is propagating these MI6 tactics is, while not necessarily someone you or I know personally, likely someone we worked alongside at some point, which significantly narrows down the possible suspects." Alec flipped the laptop around to face K, showing her what he found. "I created a list of all of the 00-Agents since we were formed. We should do this with the WIB as well, to see if you come up with anything; I didn't have access to your division's files."  
Alec brought up the list as K looked on with an expression impossible to read. Alec could see her eyes scanning through the information, processing it for anything suspicious as the WIB were so well-trained to do.

"From the list, I filtered out all of the agents that were confirmed killed in action, and all of the ones that retired voluntarily or were discharged from the service, as MI6 still keeps tabs on them and would know if anything suspicious were going on." Alec clicked a button and the list was pared down to just two names.

"These are the only two agents who were ever lost on a mission, and whose conditions were never confirmed, dead or alive. One is our old friend Max, who you may remember as 008. He was assigned to the LeBeau case before I volunteered for it, and also went missing," Alec said, finally revealing this to K. Her reaction was again difficult to interpret but Alec noticed that her eyes widened ever so slightly upon this news. He couldn't tell whether this was shock or anger at having been kept in the dark about it until now.

"The other was 001. K, until I got access to these files recently, I was not even aware of this fact. I'd heard the stories about 001 of course, but none of the other 00-Agents, James, Max, myself, had ever actually seen him, or encountered him on any of our mission briefing or debriefing documents. One time James asked the MI6 director why this was, and he was informed that none of 001's activities were ever written down or recorded in any way. His missions were supposedly of such importance that MI6 was more prioritised keeping them a secret over knowing the whereabouts or actions of their operative. Of course that has clearly come back to bite them in the ass since now he is evidently missing and they have no idea where to look for him." Alec said solemnly.

"So what's the big deal? So it was this 001 that's behind it. We find him, and the whole mystery unfolds, right?" K asserted impatiently.

"You may be right, yes." Alec said. "But it's not necessarily that straightforward. I wasn't surprised to discover that when I opened 001's file, there was not very much information. All that was really there was the background on his recruitment."

"001 was the first 00-Agent. He was essentially MI6's trial run to see how essentially 'above-the-law' operatives might benefit national security. No need for all the bureaucratic red tape that slows down and jeopardises important missions, just action. However they knew that it would only be rare individuals who would qualify for a position like that. They wanted someone incorruptible. Intense psychological evaluations were done with top prospects from every branch of the highest-level British military forces. Once selected, the candidate underwent years of additional physical, psychological and academic training. Once it was completed, he officially became 001, and was sent on missions by MI6. They were apparently successful, as the 00-Agent program was approved and its existence is the reason I am sitting before you today." Alec said. He realised he had unintentionally said that with a touch of pride in his voice, but he couldn't help it when he remembered what an honour it had been to be chosen to make up the crack team of remaining 00-Agents. "The bottom line is, despite knowing next to nothing about 001, his origins and what everyone else says about him represent everything the 00-Agents stand for. What I stand for. I'm not saying he couldn't be behind this but what would his motive be? There's definitely reason to doubt that theory as well."

"Well that's all well and good for the boy scouts," K snapped suddenly. "But the reason I'm here today isn't a pathetic sense of patriotic pride, or some kind of raison d'être I get from because I'm the best of the best and the only thing that stands between peace and international chaos."

Alec suddenly felt very ashamed. Even though he was fairly certain she hadn't been referring to him directly, had her comments stung far more than they should have because they were true? Was he actually drawing vitality from the fact that James had disappeared? Had he only adamantly demanded that he return to field service to take on James' case with foolish hopes of reliving the glory days? Alec silently questioned himself as K continued.

"I'm here because of James," she said simply. "I was not happy to see you on my doorstep. I was not happy to have to fight off two men yesterday afternoon. And I'm certainly not happy about assuming the title of 'Agent K' again."

Alec suddenly noticed that there was a very obvious pain in her eyes and in her voice. He had no idea what it could mean, but it alarmed him as it was the first time since he had met up with her the previous day that she had ever so slightly let down the wall that was blocking Alec from her real emotion, and it alarmed him slightly.

"If it weren't for the fact that...that working with you guys must have instilled some bastardised sense of normal social companionship between us agents, I would say to hell with all of it without a second thought, but we can't just leave James high and dry." K finished. She looked down briefly at her tablet, then looked up again.

Alec returned her look, beginning to understand fundamental aspects of her personality and why she ever would have chosen to come on this mission, throwing her normal, happy life out the window, even if only temporarily.

"I know exactly what you mean," he said sympathetically. "James is my friend, too. When we get to England we will consider all of the possibilities." He wanted her to know that he was ready to work with her to do whatever it took to find out what happened to James, even if it meant accepting the 00-Agent golden boy as a traitor.

"Thank you." K said. "And I do mean that."

The plane taxied onto the runway, preparing to take off, and Alec's stomach lurched. He reclined his seat back.

"Until that time though, you don't mind if I get a little more shut-eye, do you? 0200 is hardly a reasonable time for anybody to me awake."

"How can a man who has survived every vehicle he has crashed – and that's basically every vehicle you've ever been at the controls of – be nervous on a flight?" She asked.

"What makes you think I'm nervous?" Alec replied, trying to mask his fear.

"Honestly. You're jumpier than a prepubescent boy at his first school dance." She said, looking back down at her tablet.

"Touche. Well, remember how James and I were SAS commandos before we were recruited by MI6? Well, due to my proficiency during the initial flight training we were all required to do, they were actually considering transferring me over to what would later become the Joint Special Forces Aviation Wing, but James changed that."

"Oh, how cute," K drawled sarcastically. "The two boy scouts, meant to be 00-partners from the beginning."

"No, actually. On my last mission before I was to be transferred, James and I were sent on an insertion operation during which we were extracting hostages from a Ukrainian air base near the end of the Cold War. We got the hostages onto a helicopter but James and I were forced to find alternative means of escape. Next thing I know I'm in a fighter-trainer with James, and he's at the controls. Let's just say that even though by the end of the mission, the British military was in possession of important Soviet technology, James made sure it would be of no use to them except as scrap metal. He also effectively destroyed my desire to ever fly again." Alec gripped the table tightly as Gordon received permission to take off and the plane began to accelerate rapidly. "It's a shame too; I used to really like to fly."


End file.
